Salem Investment Counselors Inc. Has $117,000 Stake in General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS)

Salem Investment Counselors Inc. reduced its stake in General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS) by 16.6% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 1,835 shares of the company’s stock after selling 364 shares during the quarter. Salem Investment Counselors Inc.’s holdings in General Mills were worth $117,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of GIS. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its stake in General Mills by 64.5% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 7,803,046 shares of the company’s stock valued at $497,054,000 after purchasing an additional 3,058,414 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in General Mills by 105.2% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 5,708,223 shares of the company’s stock valued at $421,552,000 after purchasing an additional 2,926,232 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its stake in General Mills by 9.4% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 33,502,737 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,474,177,000 after purchasing an additional 2,867,678 shares in the last quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. increased its stake in General Mills by 6,140.4% in the second quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 945,421 shares of the company’s stock valued at $59,807,000 after purchasing an additional 930,271 shares in the last quarter. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its stake in General Mills by 6,114.0% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 450,451 shares of the company’s stock valued at $33,266,000 after purchasing an additional 443,202 shares in the last quarter. 75.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

GIS has been the subject of several research analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of General Mills from $63.00 to $67.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, October 14th. Citigroup decreased their target price on shares of General Mills from $71.00 to $67.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. TD Cowen decreased their target price on shares of General Mills from $75.00 to $64.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their target price on shares of General Mills from $82.00 to $78.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Piper Sandler boosted their target price on shares of General Mills from $74.00 to $84.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, General Mills currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $71.31.

General Mills Stock Down 0.9 %

GIS opened at $58.82 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.39, a current ratio of 0.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.20. The stock has a market cap of $32.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.00, a PEG ratio of 3.47 and a beta of 0.11. General Mills, Inc. has a twelve month low of $58.27 and a twelve month high of $75.90. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $64.15 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $67.64.

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, December 18th. The company reported $1.40 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.22 by $0.18. The firm had revenue of $5.24 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.14 billion. General Mills had a net margin of 12.14% and a return on equity of 26.85%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 2.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.25 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that General Mills, Inc. will post 4.5 earnings per share for the current year.

General Mills Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 10th will be paid a $0.60 dividend. This represents a $2.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.08%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 10th. General Mills’s payout ratio is 52.17%.

Insider Buying and Selling at General Mills

In other General Mills news, CEO Jeffrey L. Harmening sold 46,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $68.61, for a total value of $3,190,365.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 355,328 shares in the company, valued at $24,379,054.08. The trade was a 11.57 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Paul Joseph Gallagher sold 1,041 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.50, for a total transaction of $67,144.50. Following the sale, the insider now owns 42,117 shares in the company, valued at $2,716,546.50. The trade was a 2.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 48,541 shares of company stock worth $3,321,170 over the last three months. 0.26% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

General Mills Profile

General Mills, Inc manufactures and markets branded consumer foods worldwide. The company operates through four segments: North America Retail; International; Pet; and North America Foodservice. It offers grain, ready-to-eat cereals, refrigerated yogurt, soup, meal kits, refrigerated and frozen dough products, dessert and baking mixes, bakery flour, frozen pizza and pizza snacks, snack bars, fruit and savory snacks, ice cream and frozen desserts, unbaked and fully baked frozen dough products, frozen hot snacks, ethnic meals, side dish mixes, frozen breakfast and entrees, nutrition bars, and frozen and shelf-stable vegetables.